Weekend Rundown: Olympic Medalists Rousey, McMann Win Quick

By: Chris NelsonJun 20, 2011

Sherdog.com Illustration

Judoka Ronda
Rousey and wrestler Sara McMann
took a combined 81 seconds to roll through their opposition Friday
night, as both Olympic medalists improved to 2-0 in their
burgeoning professional MMA careers.

Rousey, 24, squared off against debuting kickboxer Charmaine
Tweet in a 150-pound contest on Hard Knocks Fighting
Championship’s “School
of Hard Knocks 12” card at Century Casino in Calgary, Alberta,
Canada. Employing her skill of trade, the 2008 Beijing Games bronze
medalist twice floored Tweet with judo-flavored takedowns, moving
to full mount on the second try and securing a textbook armbar
after only 49 seconds. Despite clocking in at less than one minute,
the submission finish still took nearly twice as long as Rousey’s
March pro debut, a 25-second armbarring of Ediane
Gomes.

Meanwhile, at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center in
Fletcher, N.C., McMann met former Canadian Olympic weightlifter
Julie
Malenfant on the fourth
offering from BlackEye Promotions. The 30-year-old McMann, who
became the first American woman to medal in wrestling with her
freestyle bronze at the 2004 Athens Games, needed just 32 seconds
to plow down “Badchild” and secure a stoppage with punches from
mount. The show’s undercard saw former Rousey adversary Gomes
submit the Gilbert
Melendez-trained Katrine
Alendal with a 42-second ankle lock.

Nickels found himself underneath the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt
seconds after the start of the fight and struggled to escape the
position. When Nickels did manage to shrimp out, Drysdale was
waiting with a lightning-quick guillotine choke which had the
Coloradoan tapping almost instantly. Since turning pro in July
2010, Drysdale has submitted all three of his opponents inside the
first round, with none lasting longer than 2:06.

In the night’s main event at Bear Mountain Arena in Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada, Kalib
Starnes looked to defend his AFC middleweight belt for the
first time against fellow ex-UFC’er John Salter.
It was not to be, however, as the local favorite succumbed to
punches from Alabama native Salter at 4:13 of the second round.
Following his second consecutive loss, the 36-year-old Starnes
reportedly announced to his hometown crowd that they had just
witnessed his last fight.

Musoke Loses, but Emerges ‘On Top’ in
Glasgow

Nicholas
Musoke got a second chance Saturday, and the Swedish fighter
made the most of the opportunity, capturing the 170-pound title of
fledgling Scottish promotion On Top at
Bellahouston Leisure Center in Glasgow.

The night began with four fighters -- Musoke, Scotland’s Steven Ray,
and Ireland’s Mervyn
Mulholland and Cathal
Pendred -- lined up to vie for the vacant strap. Local favorite
Ray first outhustled Mulholland on the feet and the floor, forcing
the Irishman to submit to a triangle-armbar with one second
remaining in their two-round semifinal. Pendred then earned a
unanimous nod over Musoke by controlling the action on the ground
for the bulk of their 10-minute affair. However, it was Musoke who
advanced to meet Ray in the final after Pendred was sidelined with
a pulled hamstring.

In stark contrast to his first fight of the night, Musoke was able
to put Ray on his back almost at will in the title bout, slicing
open the Scot with hard ground-and-pound. Moments after himself
being cut by an elbow, Musoke applied a deep rear-naked choke which
had Ray slapping the canvas in submission at 4:56 of the first
round. Afterward, Musoke recognized that he had not truly earned
his spot in the final and offered to rematch Pendred when his
hamstring healed.

Despite scoring takedowns in the opening stanza of their
featherweight fight, Marcos
Nardini wilted under pressure from Lithuanian Sergej
Grecicho, who kept top position and battered the Scotland-based
Brazilian for most of the second frame. A bloodied and swollen
Nardini had little to offer by the final round, allowing Grecicho
to sprawl and pound his way to a clear-cut unanimous verdict.

Wolfslair Academy product Michael
Bowman was victorious in his first trip to the cage since being
eliminated from the 13th season of “The Ultimate Fighter” earlier
this year. Bowman spent the early portion of his 163-pound
catchweight bout with Kieran
Malone defending single-leg takedown attempts, but eventually
broke loose and floored the Scottish wrestler with a standing
elbow. Unable to capitalize before the end of the round, Bowman
quickly made up for his lapse in the next period, putting Malone on
his back against the fence and coaxing a tap with a guillotine
choke after 54 seconds.

Scottish muay Thai convert Sean Wright
laid waste to Richard
Edwards just 65 seconds into their lightweight affair, crushing
the American with a brutal knee and right hook in the clinch which
forced referee Marc Goddard
into action. Lightweight Claes
Beverlov also had a short night, as the Swedish submission
specialist improved to 7-1 with a 73-second triangle-choking of
Scotsman Graham
Armstrong. Earlier in the evening, Scottish flyweight Brian
Hyslop survived a knockdown scare to submit Northern Ireland’s
Barry
McGuigan via rear-naked choke at 2:03 of round two, and
afterward celebrated by “planking”
atop the cage fence.

Quick Hits

Dan
Lauzon became the first lightweight champion of top New England
promotion World Championship Fighting at Friday’s
WCF 11 in Wilmington, Mass. Once the youngest fighter ever to
compete in the UFC, now-23-year-old Lauzon won his third straight
by battering Vermont’s Noah
Weisman with punches, pounding out a TKO win at 3:55 of round
one. Also on the card,
Team Bombsquad featherweight Anthony
Leone halted a four-fight losing skid with a unanimous decision
over Mainer Bill
Jones.

English promotion Cage Warriors Fighting Championship held its
inaugural “CWFC Fight
Night” Thursday at Le Grand Hotel in Amman, Jordan, and while
German heavyweight Andreas
Kraniotakes scored his 10th stoppage win in the main event, it
was French lightweight Jean N'Doye
who stole the show. N’Doye, 23, displayed a diverse game on the
feet and the floor, but relied mainly on his crisp boxing to batter
and bloody Dan Hope. The
end came at 3:55 of the third round, when some 30 unanswered
punches prompted referee Marc Goddard to rescue Hope, moving the
young Frenchman’s unblemished record to 5-0.

American Top Team product Mike Bruno
took a lopsided unanimous decision over Mexico’s Manuel
Gallareta Friday in the 155-pound headliner of
Fight Time 5 “Total Destruction” at War Memorial Auditorium in
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The younger brother of
UFC vet Steve Bruno
imposed a grinding top game across all three rounds to win his
third straight under the banner of Fight Time, an event promoted by
1976 Olympic boxing gold medalist and current ATT striking coach
Howard Davis Jr.

Unbeaten prospect Mark
Striegl scored the most important win of his career Friday when
Saipan gym Trench Tech held the 14th iteration of its Trench
Warz series at Saipan World Resort’s Royal Taga Hall. The
Wajutsu Keishukai youngster submitted TT representative Giovanni
Sablan via rear-naked choke at 3:15 of the opening round in
their lightweight main event, securing Striegl’s spot in the
upcoming featherweight title tournament of Hong Kong-based
promotion Legend Fighting Championship. On the undercard, former
URCC 115-pound title challenger Jordan Ogo
choked out Jay Muna at
2:15 of the first frame of their flyweight tilt.

French 205-pounder Francis
Carmont continued down the comeback trail Friday, punching out
Jason
Day in the first round of their headliner at Slammer
in the Hammer in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Absent from MMA for
two years, 29-year-old Carmont returned to the ring last September
as a member of Tristar Vale Tudo and has since rattled off four
straight stoppage victories. In the co-main event, Michigan’s
Daron
Cruickshank notched a first-round TKO of Canadian lightweight
Brad
Cardinal, who was recently announced as a September opponent
for WEC vet Chris
Horodecki.